Qualifications and Criteria for Community Membership

The Apereo Foundation recognizes three types of organizations as eligible for Community Membership: 

  • Non-profit Organizations
  • Educational Institutions
  • User Communities

Please review the membership qualifications and eligibility criteria below that best align with your organization and return the relevant evidence and/or references supporting your membership along with a signed Community Member Agreement. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Apereo staff members at membership@apereo.org 

Non-Profit Organizations

Qualifications

Please provide evidence and references supporting the qualifications below (these may be hyperlinks).

  1. Currently recognized as a (or application submitted for) non-profit/not-for-profit (or equivalent) by the national government were organized.
  2. Mission statement describing purpose and goals.
  3. Documentation formalizing organization, e.g., by-laws.
  4. Evidence of development or adoption of a product(s) or service(s) distributed with an OSI Approved Open Source License or Creative Commons License.
  5. An active community:
    • Methods for current and interested individuals/organizations to join and participate in your community
    • Active participation from multiple contributors, i.e., individuals and organizations other than founders (contributions may be other than programming/technology)
  6. References from other organizations, ideally engaged in open initiatives (open source software, open education, open science, etc.).

Criteria

  1. Signed Community Membership Agreement.
  2. Cover letter including
    1. interest(s) in Community Membership and
    2. proof of the above qualifications.

       

Educational Institutions

Qualifications

Please provide evidence and references supporting the qualifications below (these may be hyperlinks).

  1. The institution is currently recognized and in good standing by an appropriate accreditation body.
  2. Evidence of institutional/departmental authority to affiliate with external organizations.
  3. Mission statement describing the purpose and goals of the institution/department.
  4. Documentation by the institution recognizing organization (academic and administrative departments only), e.g., organizational chart.
  5. Evidence of development or use of a product(s) or service(s)--e.g., open source educational technology, open educational resources, open data/science, etc.--distributed with an OSI Approved Open Source License and/or Creative Commons License.
  6. References from other organizations, ideally engaged in open initiatives (open source software, open education, open science, etc.). 

Criteria

  1. Signed Community Membership Agreement.
  2. Cover letter including
    1. interest(s) in Community Membership and
    2. proof of above qualifications.

User Communities

Qualifications

Please provide evidence and references supporting the qualifications below (these may be hyperlinks).

  1. Founding documentation formalizing organization, e.g., by-laws.
  2. Mission statement describing purpose and goals.
  3. Association memberships, partnerships, etc. (if applicable) with international, national, professional, and/or affiliated organizations.
  4. Publicly available release of events/activities, e.g., meetings, conferences, etc.
  5. An active community:
    1. Methods for current and interested individuals/organizations to join and participate in your community
    2. Active participation from multiple contributors, i.e., individuals and organizations other than founders (contributions should be other than programming/technology)
  6. References from other user communities, ideally engaged in open initiatives (open source software, open education, open science, etc.).

Criteria

  1. Signed Community Membership Agreement.
  2. Cover letter including
    1. interest(s) in Community Membership and
    2. proof of the above qualifications.

Please contact membership@apereo.org with any questions or concerns.